The Propaganda Model
Based on Manufacturing Consent, by
Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky
In a democracy, a properly functioning news media is
of paramount importance. What functions should the
news media have in a democracy?
• Report events objectively as
they occur, to allow citizens to
make informed political choices
• Control governmental abuses of
power, through investigative
journalism
According to Herman and Chomsky, the US media fail
in these respects. In fact, they consider the US media a
propaganda system. They compare the system to the
propaganda systems of totalitarian states and observe
that,
“It is much more difficult to see a propaganda
system at work where the media are private and
formal censorship is absent. This is especially
true when the media actively compete,
periodically attack and expose corporate and
governmental malfeasance, and aggressively
portray themselves as spokesmen for free speech
and the general community interest.”
p.1
They continue by claiming that,
“What is not evident (and remains
undiscussed in the media) is the limited
nature of such critiques.”
p.2
They explain the failure of the US news media with their
propaganda model, which
“traces the routes by which money and
power are able to filter out the news fit to
print, marginalize dissent, and allow the
government and dominant private interests
to get their message across to the public.”
p.2
The model suggests the existence of a set of news “filters”,
which dilute the raw news content into a content that suits
the dominant corporate and governmental interests.
Financial ownership
Funding through advertising
Reliance on PR
“Flak”
“Anti-communism”
To reiterate the five filters one more time:
• corporate ownership of the media
• financial reliance on advertising
• reliance on PR information provided by
government and business
• “flak” as a means of disciplining the media
• “anticommunism” as a control mechanism
FILTER 1: Corporate ownership
• The American media is increasingly
concentrated in the hands of a small number of
private companies, owned by wealthy individuals.
• The pressures of stockholders, directors and
bankers are also powerful forces affecting the
content of these companies' media content.
• Thus "market-profit-oriented forces" (p.14)
compete with news value.
FILTER 2: Financial reliance on advertising
• Advertisers essentially buy and pay for the
programs on TV, they are the "patrons".
• They tend to choose culturally and politically
conservative programs.
• Advertisers will want, more generally, to avoid
programs with serious complexities and
disturbing controversies that interfere with the
"buying mood.”
FILTER 3: Reliance on PR for information
• The media have daily news needs, and thus
need a steady, reliable source of news
material.
• Maintaining news reporters at all locations
where news may break is not financially
viable.
• As a result, news organizations become
reliant on government PR.
FILTER 4: “Flak” as a means of discipline
• Negative responses to media content:
phone calls, letters, petitions, law suits,
speeches, bills before Congress
• From individuals or groups, politicians,
government, business
• When produced by individuals or groups
with large resources, it can be "both
uncomfortable and costly" (p. 26)
• Advertisers are particularly concerned about
flak: link with filter 2
FILTER 5: Anticommunism
• Ideology against a common enemy helps
"mobilize the populace" (p. 29)
• "Fuzzy" (p. 29) concept that can be used
against anyone threatening the interests of the
financial elite
• Downfall of Communism left a gap (the
common enemy) that has now been replaced
EXAMPLES
Chomsky and Herman give multiple examples of
how news media content is in accordance with
their model's predictions. For example:
• The almost totally unreported US chemical
warfare in Indochina during the 1960s (p. xxx)
• Reporting of genocide by “enemy states”, but
not by “the United States or U.S. client states.”
(p. xix)